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Developing Your Personal Brand Equity

A 21st century approach

Building
a reputation in the accounting profession takes time, but is
critical to success. Traditionally, partners built their reputation,
or personal brand, by pushing information out to clients, prospects
and friends. The timeworn mantra “it’s not what you know, but who
you know” has been a fundamental building block for counseling
younger partners and rising stars.

With
the explosion of social media and other new digital tactics,
however, “push” is giving way to “dialogue,” where
people-to-people-driven information is becoming an important way to
create personal awareness, establish credibility, drive
differentiation at the personal level, and invite prospects into
relationships that can be transformed into new business. The new
mantra for today’s younger partners and rising stars is: it’s not
who you know, but who knows you; and it’s not what you know, but how
quickly you share your knowledge, observations and insights. Now,
more than ever, talented professionals need to be able to
distinguish themselves quickly across a series of networking
platforms. If you are a young CPA interested in building your
reputation and developing your own personal brand equity (PBE), this
article is for you. CPA firm partners and managers can also benefit
from understanding the importance of personal brand equity and the
effect it can have on your firm.

Understand
personal brand equity and the process of branding. Basically,
PBE consists of: (1) the intangible value individuals bring to the
firm in terms of their ability to influence others by leveraging
their experience, expertise and reputation, (2) the relationships
they have built and maintained, and (3) the tangible value they
bring in terms of their contribution to firm revenue and growth.

Managing
partners and executive committees need to understand the concept of
personal branding and its importance for a firm’s growth and legacy.
Personal branding can be a strategic objective for the firm, as well
as a process that allows younger partners and rising stars to stand
out from a crowd by identifying their unique value proposition,
articulating it through a consistent message, and then delivering it
across multiple media platforms.

Craft
personal brand statements and brand positioning. Each
younger partner and rising star’s brand should be built on a
“position” that can be articulated in a personal brand statement.
They need to answer this question as a start: What makes you
different and why should people care?

A
personal brand position statement has four key elements: (1)
identifying a target market by niche or by job title; (2) choosing
personal attributes and characteristics that define how the
individual wants to be perceived; (3) defining and selecting the
technical skills he or she wishes to highlight; and (4) conveying
what makes him or her different. Examples: “I am a dedicated
professional who helps owners of small manufacturing businesses
develop and execute succession plans that guarantee firm continuity.
No other CPA in the market can combine innovative thinking with
resources, contacts and experience like I do.”

Another
example: “I am a manager who uses the audit process as a
steppingstone to understand and help my tax-exempt clients solve
their business issues. My clients think of me as a team player and a
‘go-to’ resource who can find ways to solve their problems.”

As
you can see from the above examples, one is very narrow, the other
broader. These position statements generally narrow over time, as
the individual realizes the value of building his or her practice
within a narrow niche. The narrower the niche, the more readily
identifiable the target market will be, creating strategic and
tactical opportunities to be a large fish in a smaller pond.

Understand
the tools, tactics and media for growing personal brand equity. New
media applications create unlimited personal brand-building
opportunities for
emerging professionals such as presenting in webinars and
contributing thought-leadership pieces to corporate blogs or your
firm’s e-newsletter. A LinkedIn account with a current and
complete profile is another way to get your name out there. You
can participate on LinkedIn by adding connections, joining
relevant “groups,” regularly updating your status and contributing
to group discussions. Twitter and Facebook are also useful
platforms. With all three of these sites, their relevancy and
utility depend on how often they are updated.

Find
the right balance. Two
dimensions of “balance” affect the ability of a younger partner or
rising star to build PBE. First, he or she needs to find the right
balance between billable time and the unbillable time necessary to
develop relationships and create thought leadership. Second, he or
she will need to find the right balance between traditional and
digital brand-building tactics. Encourage effective use of all options.

PERSONAL BRANDING AND YOUR FIRM’S SUCCESSION PLAN

Personal
brand equity planning should be a part of every firm’s succession
plan to protect its future growth and viability. For firms with a
succession plan in place, it’s likely that significant attention was
devoted to financial, leadership, client retention and funding
issues, but does the plan acknowledge the impact of the loss of
influence on firm continuity when your senior partners retire and
how it’s going to be replaced? Devote attention now to the
development and nurturing of PBE for your firm’s younger partners
and rising stars.

Develop
individualized and customized personal branding plans. Develop a
written plan for each young partner/rising star. The plan should
include defined goals such as pinpointing membership and
participation levels in civic and trade associations or securing
thought leadership through a targeted number of speaking engagements
or publishing opportunities. It should contain tactical elements
that define how those goals will be reached. The plan must
incorporate use of the firm’s marketing resources and
infrastructure, such as how to capitalize on the firm’s
e-newsletter. The plan should include a way to define and measure
the return on investment of their personal brand equity, both in
terms of growth in the book of business and through exposure and awareness.

Commit,
measure and adjust. Building
PBE is a lifelong endeavor that requires commitment and planning.
Both the individual and his or her supervisor need to continually
monitor the plan’s progress and make adjustments when necessary.
It’s never been easier to do than in the digital age. Online tools
such as the ID Calculator from Reach Personal Branding (reachpersonalbranding.com)
provide metric-based insight on the reach and frequency of personal
branding activities. Subscribe to Google Alerts to capture instances
where and when a partner or rising star is mentioned.

Transferring
goodwill. Goodwill
is an intangible asset, and its representation on your firm’s
balance sheet is, to a large degree, the sum of the goodwill earned
individually by your partners over the years. Personal branding
becomes a set of strategies and tactics that builds the firm’s
balance sheet. When a partner retires, a piece of the firm’s
goodwill retires with him or her, so investing in the personal
branding of younger partners and rising stars is more than just an
exercise for securing a return on influence—it’s a part of securing
the firm’s financial health.

Can
the goodwill of a retiring partner be transferred? Generally
speaking, no, because goodwill is the product of a partner’s
reputation that has been secured over the years through a record of
achievements. Emerging professionals need to build their own book of
achievements, but the firm can certainly help, starting with client
relationship- building activities that will be a part of account
transfers, introductions at civic and trade associations with the
objective of securing leadership roles, and the development,
monitoring and continual maintenance of customized personal branding plans.

CONCLUSION

A
personal brand is a perception in the minds of others that must be
developed, nurtured and managed by younger partners and rising
stars—the notion that there is no one else in the marketplace quite
like them. Their personal brand will stand at the forefront of
influencing all types of stakeholders in the niches your firm serves
via their experience, expertise, thought leadership, honesty,
integrity and capabilities.

It is
fair to say that all of the senior partners in your firm have a
personal brand, some stronger than others, some more by happenstance
than design, and it is a certainty that their brands are at the core
of your firm’s new business success. Firms need to recognize this
and invest in helping their younger partners and rising stars create
and sustain a personal brand because it’s good for business now and
in the future, and the best way they can stand out and prosper in an
increasingly noisy and fast-paced business-development world.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Building
a reputation in
the accounting profession takes time, but the explosion of
social media and other new digital tactics are putting
increasing demands on the ability to share knowledge,
observations and insights quickly. Younger professionals need to
develop a position, or personal brand statement, that they can
clearly articulate across a series of platforms.

Personal
brand equity (PBE) consists of: (1)
the intangible value individuals bring to the firm in terms of
their ability to influence others by leveraging their
experience, expertise and reputation, (2) the relationships they
have built and maintained, and (3) the tangible value they bring
in terms of their contribution to firm revenues and
growth.

A
personal brand position statement consists of
four key elements: (1) identifying a target market by niche or
by job title; (2) choosing personal attributes and
characteristics that define how the individual wants to be
perceived; (3) defining and selecting the technical skills they
wish to highlight; and (4) conveying what makes them
different.

It
is important for upper management to
understand and support the concept of personal branding and its
importance for a firm’s growth and legacy.

Personal
brand equity planning should be a
part of every firm’s succession plan to protect its future
growth and viability.

Develop
a written plan for
each young partner/rising star. The plan should include a way to
define and measure the return on investment of his or her
personal brand equity, both in terms of growth in the book of
business and through exposure and awareness.

Building
PBE is a lifelong endeavor that
requires commitment and planning. Continually monitor the plan’s
progress and make adjustments when necessary.

Alan
Vitberg (avitberg@bonadio.com)
is the director of marketing at The Bonadio Group in
Rochester, N.Y.

To
comment on this article or to suggest an idea for another
article, contact Loanna Overcash, senior editor, at lovercash@aicpa.org or
919-402-4462.

The
Private Companies Practice Section (PCPS) is a voluntary firm
membership section for CPAs that provides member firms with
targeted practice management tools and resources, as well as a
strong, collective voice within the CPA profession. Visit the
PCPS Firm Practice Center at aicpa.org/PCPS.